Charter School Group's Role As Landlord Under Scrutiny

Vanessa de la Torre

Former CEO of the Jumoke Academy charter school Michael M. Sharpe, 62, seen at the far right, was previously convicted twice on criminal charges, and admitted that the academic credentials he claimed were inaccurate.

Former CEO of the Jumoke Academy charter school Michael M. Sharpe, 62, seen at the far right, was previously convicted twice on criminal charges, and admitted that the academic credentials he claimed were inaccurate. (Vanessa de la Torre)

HARTFORD — When new leaders took control of the beleaguered Jumoke Academy this summer, one of their first reforms was getting former CEO Michael Sharpe to vacate an apartment that he rented at a discount from the charter school group.

But Sharpe wasn't the only one living in Jumoke's century-old building.

One of the remaining mysteries from the charter organization's past management is how a woman came to occupy an apartment one floor above Sharpe, and who, if anyone, was collecting rent while she was there. Sharpe won't say. Neither will the tenant. And Jumoke officials say they don't know.

The grand Victorian home was one of two buildings in the city in which the state-subsidized charter group took on the role of landlord. Jumoke's past practices are now under investigation by a federal grand jury and the state Department of Education, and subpoena records indicate that the federal probe is examining Sharpe's lease arrangement.

Jumoke administrators who have worked to sort out the group's finances said they found no record of rental payments by the woman, who occupied an apartment on the third floor of the home at 852 Asylum Ave. Sharpe lived in the spacious second-floor apartment that was created partly with state funds.

His one-page signed lease specified that he would occupy the second floor starting in February 2013. But after moving out in July, Sharpe wrote a letter to Jumoke officials in which he contended that it was "clear to all parties" that he also had lawful control of the third-floor apartment.

A lawyer for Jumoke, Christine Chinni, said that claim is fanciful and "manufactured" by Sharpe. Jumoke's new executive director, Troy Monroe, said that if anyone was paying rent for the third floor, that money "absolutely" should have gone to Jumoke.

Sharpe's letter referred to the third-floor tenant's occupancy as a "sublet," but did not detail whether she was paying rent to him. Sharpe has refused to discuss the woman and did not respond to a recent message asking for clarification on the lease or his arrangement with her.

The woman, identified in records as Lisa Bell, has declined to answer any questions about her occupancy at the Jumoke-owned building. In July, after controversy enveloped Sharpe and he agreed to leave the apartment, Jumoke signed a short-term lease with her that ended in September.

The second and third floors are now vacant at 852 Asylum, a 14-room, Queen Anne-style mansion that Jumoke bought for $200,000 under Sharpe's direction — part of a trio of neighboring, historic buildings in Asylum Hill that the charter group acquired in late 2011, telling the state that the extra space would be used to expand its educational offerings.

Sharpe, who was Jumoke's CEO and a leading charter school executive in Connecticut at the time, then oversaw a $465,000 renovation of 852 Asylum, including the conversion of the second floor into an apartment with a $12,000 master bathroom and custom shower door.

Sharpe founded Family Urban Schools of Excellence, a closely-related charter management organization that ran Jumoke's schools, in 2012. In the role of boss and tenant, Sharpe's lease states that he agreed to pay $500 a month to occupy the second floor, plus half the cost of the building's utilities. Sharpe has told The Courant that he usually owed about $1,000 a month, because he also paid some of the property taxes.

Details of the lease came to light after Sharpe resigned as chief executive of FUSE in June, following revelations in The Courant that he had spent time in federal prison and had falsely claimed for years to have a doctorate degree. Sharpe pleaded guilty in 1989 to charges of conspiracy and embezzling more than $100,000 from a California public transit agency, where he had been a real estate manager.

Jumoke administrators say that 852 Asylum was not the only building in which the charter group accepted live-in tenants.

After buying a former church at 339 Blue Hills Ave. for $1.45 million in 2007, Jumoke, while under Sharpe's leadership, rented out an adjacent home on the property as both office space and a residence. Jumoke officials say the house was most recently occupied by another woman who has children in the Jumoke system, although they have no record of a written lease or any payments she might have made.

Jumoke's new officers gave the mother time to find somewhere else to live and, by early November, the house was empty. The Courant is not aware of her current residence, and efforts to contact her were unsuccessful. Jumoke records show that the woman was paid $1,200 between August 2013 and June 2014 for custodial services, including $600 for work at the "mansions."

As for 852 Asylum, Sharpe's letter to Jumoke does little to clear up confusion about the financial terms of his occupancy.

Sharpe had failed to pay nearly $8,000 in past rent bills when he vacated the apartment, according to records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. But in his letter, he asserted that his rent had been miscalculated and that he actually owed $6,550. He included a check for that amount, which, he wrote, was "more than fair in assuring that Jumoke Academy was fully reimbursed for cost and that I was not unfairly charged beyond the intent of the lease agreement."

Jumoke's current officials say they assume that the $6,550 was accepted by their predecessors. Sharpe's nephew, Joseph Dickerson III, who had served as Jumoke's acting executive director and an organizational leader until his dismissal in early August, did not respond to messages for comment.

Monroe said the new administration has decided that it is not worth the potential expense of pursuing any possible unpaid rent. Chinni, the lawyer, has also said that Jumoke is not interested in untangling the mystery of the third-floor tenant.

"As an executive director who really has an academic mind-set .... my whole focus has been on really trying to move forward," Monroe said. "We just want to move on, close the door on that chapter and focus on education and focus on our kids and our community. That's what we're here for."